The Silicon Review ^Asia

The online gaming market of Southeast Asia (SEA) has seen a phenomenal boom over the years and hence it cannot be ignored by marketers. A major reason behind this fact is that the region is primarily mobile-first.

Each country in SEA has its nuances in gaming culture and understanding this is crucial for marketers. Today, smartphones have become the go-to gaming platform for both competitive and casual gamers. This also helps level the playing field as a new generation of players come from all income levels and will now be able to compete at a high level without expensive hardware. The e-sports gaming scene had more than 50,000 competing teams last year with Arena of Valor (ROV) and PUBG Mobile as the top two leading games in the Asian market. The growth of the SEA’s gaming culture has been organic but is still quite nascent. Scaling it would require connecting the dots between gamers and brands that can grant them the opportunity. Gamers need to also develop their skills in business and social media.

All over the world, the gaming culture is becoming a fever with Singapore going all in to become an e-sports hub by hosting competitions such as the ‘Singapore Major’ with total prizes over US $ 940,000. The 2022 Asian games will recognize e-sports and could potentially make it in the Olympics shortly as well.